Principles

Xu Yuan was not surprised that Mu Xingyi could see through his bluster. The willow ghost blade was a specialized treasure against yin ghosts; its deterrent effect against other races shrank almost to nothing. From the moment he discovered that the other party was not a yin ghost, Xu Yuan had already prepared himself to be exposed. After all, without the threat of the willow ghost blade, relying solely on defensive robes that passively blocked all probing was clearly not enough to bluff anyone. Amidst the silence, Mu Xingyi's light, smiling voice rang out once more: "Brother Zhou, you should know what I am talking about." The truth was out in the open. Xu Yuan lifted the willow ghost blade in his hand, glanced at it, and looked past its edge at the pale man opposite him. With an odd expression, he asked, "Of course I know what you're talking about, but you aren't going to just snatch it?" "Brother Zhou, you saved my life. I cannot do that." "So you're forcing a trade instead?" "..." Mu Xingyi shook his head gently, his tone calm and earnest: "If I truly intended to force an unfair trade, what I would demand would be far more than just this blade. "In truth, this transaction is very fair to you, Brother Zhou. This demonic dragon must possess a wealth of intelligence regarding Guyuan. For your clan, her value should far exceed a living blade forged from a Saint Tier yin ghost." Xu Yuan thought for a moment and smiled. "You make a lot of sense, but what if I refuse?" Mu Xingyi's faint smile remained unchanged. "Then I will have no choice but to offend you. Even then, I will only take what falls within the scope of our trade. After all, Brother Zhou, you once saved my life." "..." Xu Yuan crisply tossed the willow ghost blade forward. The slender blade rolled twice across the sand before coming to a stop, sinister black mist seeping from it and tainting the surrounding yellow sand. Looking at the man before him, Xu Yuan chuckled softly. "Ah, I still preferred how you were back then." Mu Xingyi looked down at the willow ghost blade on the ground without immediately picking it up. Instead, he softly replied, "Brother Zhou jokes. What you preferred was not who I was back then, but rather the man who provided you with precious intelligence without seeking a return, treating you well without rhyme or reason." "..." After a moment of dumbfounded silence, Xu Yuan chuckled under his breath. "Spot on. You're completely right. In the end, this is still a forced trade built on strength. You didn't have to go this far." A faint sigh passed through Mu Xingyi's calm brown pupils as he said with a smile, "Yet I believe once you become a father, Brother Zhou, you will understand why I am doing this." As he spoke, Mu Xingyi lowered his gaze to his hand, which was gradually becoming encased in insectoid chitin. He took a slow step forward, bent down, and picked up the willow ghost blade from the sand. He said softly to Xu Yuan, "Given your background, Brother Zhou, you will in all likelihood view Wan'er's offense against your female companion and my current forced trade as an insult. But why not consider it a gift to your nephew? "Because if you look at it that way, you will gain the goodwill of two Saints." "Snatching someone's treasure and making them feel like they got the better deal—you really know how to console people." Xu Yuan stroked his chin and chuckled. "Still, seeing that you can tell I come from an extraordinary background, aren't you afraid I'll harbor a grudge?" Mu Xingyi gave a noncommittal response, saying indifferently, "What I said was merely a suggestion. Once you return to your clan, Brother Zhou, I will respect whatever choice you make." Xu Yuan shrugged helplessly. Pointing his thumb at the Little Dragon Maiden behind him, he said softly, "All right, let's not look so far ahead. Business is business. Since it's a trade, shouldn't you take care of the Little Dragon Maiden for me? She still seems capable of putting up a fight." Mu Xingyi shifted his gaze toward the demonic dragon lying in the massive crater with knitted brows. After a brief pause, he said in a low voice, "She is already grievously wounded. The female companion at your side should be more than enough to handle her." Xu Yuan insisted, "The dragon race is the head of all beasts, virtually invincible within the same realm. One can never be too careful." "Put that way, that makes sense." Mu Xingyi pondered for a moment and gave a slight nod. Carrying the willow ghost blade, he walked toward the Little Dragon Maiden and asked casually, "Then how about I sever her limbs for you, Brother Zhou?" "Works for me." Xu Yuan nodded with a smile. The moment the words left his mouth, he vanished from the spot using Void-Treading Slash. The instant he vanished, Mu Xingyi's brows knitted involuntarily. His qi dynamic could not lock onto his opponent, and the sudden teleportation caused him to lose track of Xu Yuan for a split second. Yet in the very next breath, using the sprawling sandstorm, he picked up his trace once more. After a brief ponder, Mu Xingyi shook his head gently. *This Zhou Junqing truly is bizarre.* With that thought, Mu Xingyi fixed his gaze on the demonic dragon, who had already half-transformed. Stepping forward in an unhurried manner, he spoke softly: "You are innocent, but I must do this. My apologies." Clenching her scaled claws, the Little Dragon Maiden narrowed her draconic eyes into two slits. Baring sharp, snow-white teeth, she spat out fearlessly: "Hypocritical human, come at me if you dare!" "I am not human. At least, not entirely." As he spoke, Mu Xingyi's body began to change. Chitinous plating surfaced on his skin, tiny, dense compound eyes emerged across the whites of his eyes, and one slender, blade-like leg after another burst out from beneath his clothes. Within several breaths, Mu Xingyi had completely transformed into an insectoid form. More than twenty slender blade-legs dug into the sand, propping his humanoid torso high into the air, uncanny as a giant daddy longlegs. "..." Sensing the transformation behind him, Xu Yuan instinctively checked his fleeing steps. Looking back from afar at the colossal monstrosity rising amidst the yellow sand, he could still feel the terrifying aura emanating from Mu Xingyi even hundreds of meters away. *The Insect Saint.* For some reason, Xu Yuan recalled the ancient beast recorded in the *Thousand Thorns Chronicles*. Still, he felt that the beast known as the Insect Saint was probably not Mu Xingyi himself. Although the qi dynamic on him right now was brutally formidable, it had not yet reached the level of a Saint. Even so, using half a brain was enough to deduce that Mu Xingyi had to share an extraordinarily intimate relationship with the Insect Saint. *Goddammit.* *His father is an Insect Saint, his wife is a Ghost Saint, and his son is that kind of ominous monstrosity.* *Could I have ended up taking the blame for this bastard?* *The moment I get back, I'm having Tianyan report him and get the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion over here to check it out.* Mulling this over, Xu Yuan braved the sandstorm and sped away into the distance. Logically speaking, judging by the aura Mu Xingyi displayed now, dealing with an Origin Realm cultivator wouldn't take much effort, and the resulting aftershocks wouldn't harm him either. The problem was that the trump card in the Little Dragon Maiden's hand hadn't been used yet. When Xu Yuan saw Mu Xingyi appear before him completely unscathed, he was certain of this. Even if Mu Xingyi were in the Transcendent Realm or even a Semi-Saint, it would be impossible for him to walk away unscratched from the Little Dragon Maiden's trump card. The Dragon Seal. The Lord of Guyuan, known as the White Emperor, had used a Dragon Seal to carve a single strike of his onto the Little Dragon Maiden. In *Cangyuan*, that thing was the definition of an instant blind-run kill. With almost no casting wind-up, it had one-shot him three or four times through sheer, overwhelming damage values. So he needed to put some distance between them. *Whoosh—* As he pondered this, Xu Yuan suddenly caught the rustle of clothes cutting through the wind by his ears. Immediately following that, he felt himself hoisted into the air by the back of his collar, flying amidst the swirling yellow sand. Vigilance surged within him in an instant, but upon seeing who it was, he let his heart settle back into place. Tianyan. Looking at the golden-eyed maiden who was speeding into the distance with him, her small face taut, Xu Yuan knitted his brows. "Why did you come back?" Tianyan didn't answer, asking back in a cool voice instead: "Why are you running so far?" Xu Yuan didn't hide anything and sighed via voice transmission: "That Little Dragon Maiden has a trump card." Tianyan glanced at Xu Yuan, teasing amusement flickering in her golden eyes. "So you're setting a trap for Mu Xingyi?" Xu Yuan rolled his eyes at her. "This is part of the trade." "You could at least have warned him. Since you know this much, you surely have a countermeasure." "Wait, why are you speaking up for him?" "..." After a moment of silence, Tianyan shook her head helplessly and casually tossed Xu Yuan toward the rim of the valley cliff beside them. She said softly, "I thought that with your personality, you would really like Mu Xingyi. After all, he's a man of principle. Even with an absolute advantage, he never harbored any murderous intent toward a mere Body Integration Realm cultivator like you." Xu Yuan steadied himself as he landed, dusted off the sand from his clothes, and gave a wry smile. "If we could be friends, I wouldn't mind trading that willow ghost blade for the Little Dragon Maiden at all. But the problem is, he and I can't be friends." Tianyan blinked and asked with a light laugh, "How so?" Xu Yuan glanced in the direction of the nameless manor and said in a low, ethereal voice, "What that ghost infant truly wants to eat... is me, not the willow ghost blade. "Right now, Mu Xingyi has misunderstood Madame Wan's intentions. If he ever finds out, he will definitely strike at me." "..." A flash of intrigue surfaced in Tianyan's radiant golden eyes. She asked in a low voice, "How do you know that?" Xu Yuan shrugged. "An instinctual feeling from my own body." Tianyan was somewhat surprised. "Ha~ Since when did you start believing in such ethereal nonsense?" "Tsk, why do you have so much to say?" Xu Yuan turned his gaze to the maiden beside him for the first time, saying in a low voice, "I haven't even grilled you yet. I told you to leave first, so why did you suddenly run—" *ROAR—* Before he could finish his sentence, a draconic roar erupted across Dragon Burial Valley. Xu Yuan reflexively looked back, but due to his limited cultivation, he could only faintly make out the phantom silhouette of an ancient dragon rising over there. Immediately afterward, an oppressive, terrifying aura instantly engulfed a radius of several li, suffocating Xu Yuan under its weight. The phantom image of the ancient dragon coiled and ascended through the sandstorm that choked the sky. And when it reached a certain critical threshold, the yellow sand whipped up by the gale seemed to have been hit by a pause button. Everything suddenly fell dead, terrifyingly silent. In the next breath, a blinding flash of white light burst forth. Amidst a roaring tempest, shockwaves ripped through, crushing the boundless dust and sand toward the perimeter like dry weeds. Then, an opening cleared in the sandstorm, and a ray of brilliant noon sunlight poured onto the earth. Tianyan stood suspended in the void, gazing into the distance, her pink palace dress fluttering loudly under the immense wind pressure. She stared toward that direction, a pensive look in her golden, light-drenched eyes. Buffeted by the raging winds and surges of qi, Xu Yuan barely propped himself up, asking in a strained whisper: "Wh-what?" Hearing this, Tianyan shook her head, turning back with a light smile: "I'm telling you, it seems the object of your trade with Mu Xingyi has already made her escape~" "..." After the pressure wave swept past, the desert's scorching sunlight poured down. As the might of the Lord of Guyuan's strike subsided, Xu Yuan took two deep breaths, feeling his breathing return to normal, before looking toward the center of the battlefield. Yet all that met his eyes was a massive crater. Raising a brow, Xu Yuan asked in a low voice, "Where is Mu Xingyi?" Tianyan cast her gaze behind Xu Yuan and said, "Mm... behind you." "..." Xu Yuan. Her playful teasing sent a jolt of horror through Xu Yuan. After staring deeply at Tianyan for several breaths, his lips twitched involuntarily. Slowly turning his eyes, Xu Yuan looked at the person behind him. Mu Xingyi was indeed there. He had survived the absolute violence of the Lord of Guyuan. However, he did not look well. The chitinous layer covering his body was covered in spiderweb cracks, continually flaking off and crumbling downward, and more than half of the blade-legs that had burst from his flesh were snapped. A serene smile still rested on Mu Xingyi's face. Clearing away the shattered chitin from his skin, he spoke in a calm voice: "Earlier, I was wondering why you ran so far away, Brother Zhou. Now it seems it was because you knew about the demonic dragon's trump card..." As he spoke, Mu Xingyi noticed Xu Yuan's guarded gaze and continued in a gentle tone: "No need to be nervous, Brother Zhou. I only came over to bid you farewell." Staring at him with an odd look, Xu Yuan said softly, "You certainly have a good temper, Xingyi." Mu Xingyi shook his head. "This transaction was a forced trade initiated by me in the first place. It is understandable that you harbored resentment and wished to drive the tiger to swallow the wolf. Even if I had perished, it would only have been my own doing." Hearing this, Xu Yuan pondered slightly and sighed softly. "Now I'm starting to appreciate you again. But in the end, you still took my weapon." "Rather than viewing it as a grudge, why not consider it a favor? I can take action on your behalf once, Brother Zhou." "Heh." With a soft chuckle, both Xu Yuan and Mu Xingyi bowed their heads slightly, spreading their hands before them in a formal salute. Yet while the two were exchanging parting courtesies, the bored Tianyan nearby suddenly cast her gaze toward the edge of the sky. She stared over there, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. And in the next breath, the composed brows of Mu Xingyi, who was in the middle of saluting, suddenly twitched for a split second. He had heard a voice transmission from Wan'er. Finishing the salute, Mu Xingyi straightened his back, drew a deep breath, and said in a sighing tone: "Brother Zhou, you should leave immediately." Xu Yuan instinctively looked up, and this time, he caught a flicker of killing intent within those calm eyes. He raised a brow. "You changed your mind?" Mu Xingyi nodded openly. "Yes." "..." The sandstorm that had been cleared away by the White Emperor's strike began closing in once more, shrouding the horizon in blade-sharp grit. Xu Yuan furrowed his brow, trying to deduce what had just occurred. He had no idea what had caused Mu Xingyi's attitude to make this complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. Yet soon enough, the slowly emerging silhouette of a woman with a slightly rounded belly explained everything in an instant. Raising a hand, Mu Xingyi held back Madame Wan, who was brimming with baleful aura and intent on stepping forward. He said in a low voice: "Brother Zhou, I can grant you half a quarter of an hour to escape." Xu Yuan couldn't help but laugh when he heard that. "Wait, is there any point in giving me half a quarter of an hour?" "Naturally." "What point?" "It makes me feel slightly better." "..." Xu Yuan glanced at Tianyan floating beside him. Only to see her seated in midair with her legs crossed, resting her chin on her hand, her delicate bare feet swaying gently in the empty air. A subtle, playful amusement lingered in those brilliant golden eyes. Her composure and calm quickly drew the attention of Mu Xingyi and his wife. Their gazes fell upon the maiden's slender, graceful figure. Under their watchful eyes, "Tianyan" let out a soft sigh, slowly rose to her feet in the void, and extended a fair, slender hand toward Mu Xingyi. With a beaming smile, she said: "Little brat, give me back my blade. That thing was on loan to him."