“Cough, cough…”
Shu Han crawled out from a heap of ashes.
A stinging burning sensation wracked his entire body, and his Spiritual Power was completely depleted.
Just moments ago, one thousand two hundred Fire God Talismans had detonated simultaneously. Although he had scooped up the Second Elder and bolted several hundred meters in a single breath, he was still caught within the fringes of the colossal, scorching fireball.
At that life-or-death juncture, Shu Han had exhausted all thirty-six Iron Armor Talismans from his bottom-of-the-chest reserve. When his final layer of defense-the Black-Iron Heart-Protecting Mirror-shattered, he stacked a Green-Light Barrier fueled by every ounce of his remaining Spiritual Power, barely managing to salvage his life.
Dragging his battered body, Shu Han hurried back to the ashes to dig his master out.
The Second Elder was utterly devoid of color. Once unburied, he slowly opened his eyes and asked weakly, “Kid… what was that just now?”
Shu Han had no wish to hide the truth from his master. If the old man had not arrived in the nick of time, Shu Han would have carried out his plan to lure Daoist Dragon Profound right into range before setting off the entire bundle of talismans. Throat parched and mouth dry, he answered, “Master, that was twelve hundred Fire God Talismans.”
“Twelve hundred… this…”
Shu Han hesitated for a moment, deciding to confess the rest. After all, his master had risked his life to save him. “Master, I possess something that can-“
Abruptly, the Second Elder pressed a hand over his mouth.
“Listen to me, child. You possess opportunities that ordinary men never see. But no matter what you hold in your hands, never let another soul know! Do not repeat your master’s mistakes.” Trembling, the old man reached into his Storage Bag and drew out a thick, heavy volume, pressing it into Shu Han’s hands. “Back then, if our Bai family had not exposed this Bai Clan Treasure-Refining Record, we would never have suffered a war of extermination. You must remember… never reveal your trump cards to anyone…”
Hearing the rattling breath catch in the Second Elder’s throat, Shu Han panicked. “Master, don’t talk anymore! I’ll carry you back to the medicine valley.”
The Second Elder only shook his head.
He pulled his hand away from his chest, revealing a gaping wound marred by writhing black threads.
Shu Han’s mind went completely blank.
A wound pierced through by the Blood Soul Sword!
“I have little time left… In truth, I had only a few years left in me anyway. Had you not come to the valley to care for me with such diligence, I likely would not have lasted these past ten years.”
The Second Elder pointed at the Bai Clan Treasure-Refining Record, his sincere gaze seeming to beg for a promise.
With those final words, his breath failed.
The Second Elder’s pale face lost its last trace of life.
That massive cluster of twelve hundred Fire God Talismans had generated such fierce heat that the streams on Yandang Mountain evaporated instantly. Heavy moisture gathered in the sky, condensing into dense clouds before a torrential downpour broke, lashing the earth without pause.
Shu Han knelt before his master’s body, remaining silent for a long time.
Entering the Dragon Profound Sect had been a disaster.
Becoming this master’s disciple was his sole stroke of fortune.
Because of Daoist Dragon Profound, his master might have owed a debt to all the forebears of the sect, but he had never owed Shu Han anything.
At last, Shu Han bowed and pressed his forehead against the muddy ground three times. He wiped the rain from his face, retrieved the Storage Bag from his master’s waist, and gathered the remains within it.
He knew this was no time for mourning.
Dragging his crippled frame, he staggered toward the center of the blast.
Whether Daoist Dragon Profound was dead or alive, he had to verify it with his own eyes.
The center of the explosion was a crater a full hundred meters wide.
Rainwater hissing against the scorched earth instantly boiled, sending scalding streams cascading down the crater’s slopes. Looking out, Shu Han spotted numerous shriveled corpses unearthed from the soil-the children who had fallen victim to Daoist Dragon Profound over the past twenty years.
When one man rises, ten thousand perish!
Shu Han leaped down into the pit, beginning his search through the scalding, muddy water.
His skin was scorched bright crimson by the boiling water, though the Spiritual Power slowly returning to his Dantian kept him from suffering mortal injury. The ground was littered with severed limbs and shattered bones, making it impossible to tell what belonged to whom at a glance.
Suddenly, his hand brushed against a small sword buried in the mud. He pulled it free-it was Daoist Dragon Profound’s Blood Soul Sword!
Gone was the hazy red glow that once shrouded the blade. The metal was pitted with deep notches, and the sword body was warped entirely out of shape. It no longer resembled the ghostly Dharma Treasure capable of slaughtering thousands. Seeing it, Shu Han felt the heavy knot in his chest finally loosen.
A life-bound Dharma Treasure links master and weapon: they prosper together and suffer together.
The virtually indestructible Blood Soul Sword had completely lost its Spiritual Nature, proving beyond a doubt that Daoist Dragon Profound had met his end, his body and Dao extinguished.
The malignant tumor that had plagued Northern Yan for so long was finally rooted out. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Shu Han knelt in the mud, staring up into the pouring rain and letting out a long breath.
“Erdan, rest in peace. Big-Head Brother has avenged you!”
Recovering his composure, Shu Han stored the ruined Blood Soul Sword into his Storage Bag and resumed searching the muck. Before long, his fingers brushed against a shattered piece of armor. The carved dragon patterns etched across its surface had cracked apart entirely, reducing it to worthless scrap iron.
He was close!
At last, Shu Han found what he had been looking for in the depths of the pit.
Daoist Dragon Profound’s Storage Bag.
The pouch itself had been battered to the brink of ruin. The moment Shu Han squeezed it, the fabric disintegrated into a cloud of fine dust, spilling its contents directly into the air.
He hurried around the crater to gather the scattered items. To his surprise, the villain’s storage was remarkably sparse; apart from a few bottles of passable Pills, everything else consisted of ordinary materials.
Pondering this, Shu Han realized that Daoist Dragon Profound had holed up in Northern Yan for over two decades, founding a sect single-handedly, and must have exhausted his core reserves long ago. Even so, Shu Han cared little for the loss, for he had finally secured the complete Dragon Profound Three Revolutions Divine Art.
To call it complete was perhaps an exaggeration; upon inspection, he found it was still an incomplete volume, detailing the cultivation process only up to Late Foundation Establishment. There was not a single word regarding the higher realms of the Core Formation Stage.
Even so, it resolved his immediate cultivation dilemma, offering him a genuine path toward Foundation Establishment.
According to the dictates of the Dragon Profound Three Revolutions Divine Art, a practitioner could never linger too long at a major Bottleneck, or their Meridians would rupture and kill them.
Furthermore, the manual recorded advanced Techniques spanning from the Qi Condensation stage all the way to Foundation Establishment.
It was precisely what he had yearned for day and night.
Having cleared the area, Shu Han retrieved a bottle of Qi-Fusing Pills from his master’s Storage Bag and used the token to summon back the Four-Pole Heavenly Sword Formation, which had been blown aside by the blast, to stand guard. Following the Second Elder’s death, Shu Han naturally inherited ownership of the array; even while the old man lived, Shu Han had held full authorization to wield it.
The four Heavenly Astral Swords were Top-Grade Magical Artifacts forged from materials far superior to the Blood Soul Sword, leaving them entirely undamaged by the cataclysmic explosion. Together, they formed the Four-Pole Heavenly Sword Formation, whose might fell little short of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s life-bound Dharma Treasure.
It was the pinnacle masterpiece of artifact crafting recorded within the Bai Clan Treasure-Refining Record.
Though not true Dharma Treasures, the four swords responded to secret incantations as seamlessly as one’s own fingers.
While they lacked the lightning-fast maneuverability of Daoist Dragon Profound directing his sword with his mind, their flight speed remained formidable. Moreover, the combined sword formation possessed profound lethality; against any opponent beneath the Foundation Establishment stage, defeat was virtually guaranteed.
Aside from their mastery of alchemy and artifact crafting, this very sword formation was the sole reason the Second Elder had maintained such an untouchable status within the sect.
Naturally, it was not something the old man had forged himself, but rather an heirloom passed down through his lineage.