Chapter 118: The Primordial Pearl, shattered.

"Yaksha!"

Amidst a deep, booming roar, a figure emerged—broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with ashen-gray skin, hair as fluffy and vibrant as azure seaweed, enormous eyes, and sharp fangs protruding from the corners of his mouth. Holding a steel trident that shimmered with greenish flame, he arrived swiftly before the Dragon Palace.

"Dragon King!"

The Water-Patrolling Yaksha knelt and bowed his head.

"My son is dead. Take your men and bring his corpse back to me, at any cost!"

The massive figure deep within the Dragon Palace turned eyes the size of millstones, shimmering with fractured gold. His gaze was cold and violent as he spat out a copper disk.

The disk was empty, yet a faint dragon motif upon it shifted constantly, as if guiding the way.

"As you command, my lord! Should I also bring back the murderer who killed the Prince?"

"That is of no consequence. What matters is my dragon blood—the dragon blood!"

As the creature shifted his terrifying, colossal body, the entire Dragon Palace trembled violently, as if about to be overturned.

"Remember! The highest priority is to bring back my dragon blood! You must bring it back!"

The fractured gold eyes surged with terrifying madness. The Linshui Flood Dragon King let out a low growl, sending the entire Linshui water territory into chaos.

Without warning, hundred-meter waves surged toward the heavens.

Suddenly, the prefectures and counties surrounding Linshui were on high alert, fearing that the great demon was once again stirring up trouble to drown the world. Every Taoist cultivator immediately took to the air, riding their flight auras and watching the water closely.

"Yes! Understood!"

Seeing the Dragon King’s fury, the Water-Patrolling Yaksha hurriedly acknowledged the order and turned, letting out a sharp, low whistle.

Instantly, the water churned with mud and sand as eleven other yakshas, similar in appearance to him, swam out from the underwater caverns.

Guided by the dragon motif on the copper disk, the twelve Water-Patrolling Yakshas stood upon the crests of the rolling, towering waves and sped away.

...

"Old Li, we’ve received orders from the Military Town. We’re setting out for a new post immediately."

In the back hall of the Qingliu County magistrate’s office, Chu Zhao, who had come to say goodbye, heartily pulled Li Jiufang into a firm embrace.

Having survived the siege by the Golden Flower Mother Sect, they were brothers-in-arms who had faced death together. During his time stationed in Qingliu, Chu Zhao had watched Li Jiufang’s every word and action.

He was a good official.

A truly good official who worked for the well-being of the common people.

This had turned Chu Zhao, who originally hadn't thought much of the somewhat indecisive scholar-magistrate, into a close brother with whom he could share wine and conversation.

Smiling, Li Jiufang patted Chu Zhao’s shoulder. "Leaving so soon? I was planning to invite you all for a drink once the outer city foundation was finished."

"No choice. The official orders from the Military Town have arrived. We must set out for Beijiang Prefecture immediately; there are several groups of demons and monsters running rampant there. The command ordered us to go and provide support. I just don't know when, or if, we brothers will ever meet again."

Pausing, Chu Zhao changed "if" to "when," and grinned.

In these chaotic times, the mortality rate for soldiers was far higher than for civilians. But this was not only their duty; it was their honor.

The ultimate honor for a soldier was to die on the frontier, wrapped in a horse’s hide. It was a long-held aspiration they had carried since the day they enlisted.

"We will meet again."

Li Jiufang thumped Chu Zhao’s chest firmly and pulled a string of yellow paper and red thread peace charms from his sleeve.

"These are peace sutras I transcribed myself. They aren't anything valuable, but please take them."

"Hahaha, not bad! You’ve got a nimble hand."

Smiling, Chu Zhao took the charms, nodded, and tucked them away. "But Old Li, after we leave, there will be no troops stationed in Qingliu County. You’ll have to handle the security yourselves. Fortunately, that mysterious sword cultivator seems to still be in the area. And his cleaning speed is getting faster and faster."

"Yesterday, I sent out ten scouts. When they returned, they reported that a radius of eight hundred miles around Qingliu County had been completely purged. Not a single demon or evil cultivator was to be found. Ruthless, truly. Eight hundred miles, with nothing left behind. They say sword cultivators are heartless; today, I’ve finally seen it for myself."

"Indeed." With a sigh, Li Jiufang added, "We are fortunate to have this sword cultivator protecting us, silently clearing away the demons around Qingliu. Otherwise, the outer city would never have been built. It’s just a pity that he is low-key and indifferent, with no desire for fame or glory, unwilling to reveal his name. Otherwise, based on his merits, it would be enough for the people of Qingliu to build a temple in his honor."

"If there were more such extraordinary people in this world, the common folk would suffer much less."

Exchanging a glance, Li Jiufang and Chu Zhao both saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes.

The imperial court was weak, and the regional governors were carving up the land. The noble clans and sects were hiding away, avoiding the world. The chaos in the great province of Dianchuan was not an isolated case.

In fact, all the provinces of the Great Xuan Dynasty—except for the Xiangchu province—were mired in varying degrees of chaos.

Demons, evil cultivators, rebel armies, cults, foreign barbarians, natural disasters... unending troubles gushed forth like a spring, and who suffered in the end? Always the common people at the very bottom.

"This great age is not something you or I can control. I only hope this dark and sunless chaos might end soon..." Staring at the sun hanging high in the sky, Li Jiufang let out a long, weary sigh.

...

Meanwhile, in a small town eight hundred miles away from Qingliu County.

This was a desolate, long-abandoned town, shrouded in bleakness and gloom. The streets were piled high with clean, distinct bones, some still draped in remnants of human skin.

The bones were stacked into small hills, mercilessly displaying the traces of the former residents. Everywhere, torn clumps of gray, tangled hair formed a chaotic scene, weaving together in thousands of strands. They moved in the wind, caught between the broken walls and ruined dwellings. The color of the hair had long since faded to a withered yellow or gray-white, as desolate as the soul of the town.

On a patch of ruins in the center of the town, a man in a plain white robe with wide sleeves and refined features moved as lightly as the wind, dodging the siege of hundreds of demons surrounding him.

"Only a dozen or so Tao-Entry realm demons. Fine, this should be enough for my breakthrough."

After counting the demons, Qi Xiu slammed a palm onto the ground.

With a physique that transcended martial artists, his palm strike shattered the ground, sending a visible shockwave that kicked up meters of earth, causing the surrounding demons to tumble and fall in shrieks of agony.

"Twelve Swords! Execute!"

Intent on ending the battle quickly, Qi Xiu shook his sleeves, and twelve invisible sword auras shot forth.

The moment they left their sheaths, twelve demons stiffened, a line of blood appearing across their heads as they were sliced in two!

Holding his Autumn Sandalwood staff and relying on his supreme movement techniques, Qi Xiu charged into the fray, slaughtering these cannibalistic freaks as easily as one would butcher chickens or dogs.

They tried to defend against the invisible sword auras while struggling to resist the bombardment of Qi Xiu’s staff-borne sword qi.

In an instant, the thirteen Tao-Entry demons were driven into a panicked rout by Qi Xiu alone, their only thought now being to flee.

If the Tao-Entry demons were in such a state, there was no need to speak of the ordinary ones.

In less than half an hour, the entire ruin was littered with the broken limbs and shattered remains of demons.

The only ones left moving were the Tao-Entry demons whose demonic miasma had been shattered, limbs severed, and eyes blinded by Qi Xiu.

With a wave of his finger, five invisible sword auras shot out, piercing through the chest of a massive bull demon covered in black hair and tumor-like cattle lice.

"It’s you..."

Staring in shock at the sword aura stained with blood emerging from his chest, the bull demon looked at Qi Xiu with a twisted face, pointing a trembling hand and cursing in hatred.

"You... sword cultivator... you’ve killed thousands of my kin... your death... is not far off!"

*Pfft—*

With a wave of his wide sleeve, the sword aura swept horizontally!

The massive bull head rolled across the ground, the bull’s eyes still fixed on Qi Xiu in death, as if he intended to remember his face even in hell.

"Your strength is mediocre, but your words are plenty."

Having cleared the town, which had gathered hundreds of demons, Qi Xiu opened his spirit pill bag and collected all the demon corpses, preparing to refine pills.

Recently, he had felt a sense of unease. Upon careful investigation, he discovered it was a warning from his humanistic merit. An alarm triggered by such merit was clearly no small disaster.

*Fwoosh.*

Danish flames ignited. Spirit pills fell one by one into Qi Xiu’s palm.

He sat cross-legged right there in the blood-soaked slaughterhouse. With eyes half-closed, Qi Xiu swallowed the spirit pills one by one; he was going to break through the second realm of the *Secret Meaning of the Hunyuan Dragon-Tiger Scripture* right here, and fully complete the wonders of the Hunyuan Pearl.

As the pills entered his belly, vast, immense spiritual power surged within him like a volcanic eruption.

His hands formed a hollow shape, and a dragon and a tiger spontaneously leaped out from within his body.

The dragon coiled around him, dispelling distracting thoughts and inner demons for a hundred miles. The tiger lay at his side—what evil spirit would dare approach?

Silently circulating the *Secret Meaning of the Hunyuan Dragon-Tiger Scripture*, the Hunyuan Pearl in Qi Xiu’s heart-temple began to stir. Great waves of spiritual power were swallowed and absorbed, transforming into streams of Hunyuan Martial Qi, which were then stored within.

As the amount of Martial Qi inside the Hunyuan Pearl increased, gradually approaching the limit of nine hundred and ninety-nine, the entire pearl began to shake.

It seemed as if it could no longer withstand the increasingly massive Hunyuan Martial Qi and was about to shatter entirely.

Beads of sweat seeped from his forehead, and Qi Xiu’s tightly closed eyes twitched.

The Hunyuan Pearl was the foundation of all his cultivation. If it exploded, all his power would be washed away, turning into nothingness.

"To glimpse the gate of the Great Dao and eternal life, one must refine the true body through the Hunyuan..."

As the Hunyuan Pearl was on the verge of shattering, a line from the general synopsis of the *Secret Meaning of the Hunyuan Dragon-Tiger Scripture* flashed through Qi Xiu’s mind.

"Must refine... true body..."

A realization dawned in his heart, and a serene smile appeared on his slightly pale face.

At the same time, on his proficiency panel, the proficiency for the [Secret Meaning of the Hunyuan Dragon-Tiger Scripture] reached 100%!

*Snap—*

The moment the number of Hunyuan Martial Qi reached nine hundred and ninety-nine, the Hunyuan Pearl in the heart-temple instantly cracked with countless fissures.

Under Qi Xiu’s gaze, the Hunyuan Pearl... shattered!