Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Hidden Meaning of the Primordial Dragon-Tiger True Scripture

The first of three

“Senior Brother, how long are we supposed to keep carrying out this Demon-Suppressing and Evil-Exterminating Order? We go out patrolling every day, and it costs us so much cultivation time.”

Riding atop a snow-white moose, her hair braided into two plaits, dressed in a plain white gown and carrying a wooden greatsword on her back, the sweet-faced little girl rested her chin in her hand and let out a long sigh.

Shouldn’t the court be handling demons and evil cultivators? Why are they making us do manual labor?

“I’m not too sure either.

But right now every sect and aristocratic clan in the province has been mobilized. Naturally, we have to obey as well. All right, all right. Once we finish patrolling today, I’ll ask Master to swap your shift and let you have two fewer days. How about that?”

The man beside her spoke with a smile. His features were cleanly cut, not exactly handsome, but carrying a gentle warmth and a broadness of spirit. Of average height and somewhat lean, he wore a neat, spotless long robe, giving off an approachable and reliable air.

“Thank you, Senior Brother. You’re the best.”

Hearing that she could get two and a half fewer days of duty, the girl with the braided hair immediately beamed with delight.

They continued slowly along the mountain path.

The two moved one after the other, the moose’s hooves sounding in a steady rhythm.

A mountain breeze brushed across their faces, bringing a faint coolness.

Miao Zhong narrowed his eyes and raised his right hand to shield them from the sunlight glaring straight in, scanning the road ahead and searching for any sign of movement.

“Ah!”

Suddenly, a terrible scream rang through the silent valley.

“There’s trouble!”

They exchanged a glance, and Miao Zhong and Qin Zhu both dug their heels into the moose’s sides, hurrying toward the direction from which the scream had come.

They rushed through a dark bend hidden by a bamboo grove.

More than a dozen evil cultivators in black robes, each holding a short dagger, were in the midst of flaying and dismembering a group of villagers while they danced and muttered over some kind of ritual.

Blood and entrails covered the ground, reeking with a stench that rose to the heavens.

A ring of twisted, oppressive, sickly and bizarre symbols had torn the earth apart.

“Stop!”

With a low shout, Miao Zhong drew the wooden sword from his back and leapt down from the moose, turning into a streak of shadow as he pounced toward the black-robed cultivators.

“Where did this brat come from, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong!”

As the leader turned, he was revealed to have a ferocious wolf’s head, red flesh between his teeth, and a foul stench pouring from his mouth.

“Wolf-blooded fiend?”

Miao Zhong’s brow furrowed. He flipped his palm and hurled out dozens of Sunfire Thunder Pellets.

Bang bang bang!

The pellets burst one after another,吐ing out gold-red solar flames that instantly swallowed several of the wolf-blooded fiends and turned them into human torches.

“You brat, you’re asking for death!”

Seeing his men rolling on the ground, screaming in agony, the wolf demon flared his nostrils and let out a roar. Yellow-brown demonic energy surged forth, and in an instant the surrounding grass, shrubs, and trees all turned withered and rotten.

Bang—

The ground was stomped into two massive pits at once, dirt flying everywhere.

The wolf demon and Miao Zhong clashed.

“Wooden Sword, Sharpen!”

Biting open the tip of his finger, Miao Zhong smeared the blood along the blade.

Upon the wooden sword carved from eight hundred-year peach wood, a sharp brilliance suddenly lit up.

“Wooden Sword, Sharpen?

You’re a disciple of the Profound Sword Gate?

Heh heh heh, perfect. I still have a blood debt I never settled with your lot.”

Green light flared in the wolf demon’s eyes. He grew even more excited, his blood-red claws ripping wildly, while his wolfish jaws repeatedly lunged toward Miao Zhong’s neck, wanting to give him a bloody kiss.

Wooden sword and wolf claws collided again and again.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The clangor of metal rang out like hammer striking an anvil, sparks flying in all directions.

With one stroke, Miao Zhong deflected the talons that were about to gut him. Then he reached into his robes and produced a transparent round vial, inside of which glimmered with flowing lights as though countless rays were moving within.

“Beast! Submit to the law!”

With a sudden squeeze, he crushed the vial. His expression was ice-cold.

Crack—

More than a dozen snow-white sword lights whistled out, surging and flashing, instantly enveloping the wolf demon within.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

Sword qi roamed over the wolf demon’s body, and blood flowers burst one after another.

It was like a thousand cuts, as though he would be flayed alive down to the bones.

Warm blood dripped from Miao Zhong’s arm. He lowered his eyes and glanced at his shoulder, where a chunk of flesh the size of a bowl had been torn away.

This was from when he had been clawed while crushing the sword-qi vial just now.

Thank goodness Master had bestowed the sword-qi vial upon him.

Otherwise, that truly would have been dangerous.

Letting out a slight breath of relief, and seeing that the wolf demon had become a blood-soaked mass with bones showing through, Miao Zhong was about to raise his sword and finish off the remaining wolf-blooded fiends.

The “wolf corpse” before him suddenly opened its eyes, a savage grin twisting across its face, eerie and horrifying.

Not good!

Alarm flared in his heart. There was no time to dodge, and Miao Zhong could only raise his sword horizontally before him.

“Die!!!”

With a crazed roar, the wolf demon unleashed a savage claw-strike.

The air trembled, and demonic qi writhed with a chilling aura.

A faint, nearly imperceptible film of light coiled around the tips of its claws.

“Half a step into the Dao?!”

Seeing that membrane of light at the claw tips, Miao Zhong’s heart shook violently.

“Qin Zhu, run!”

He twisted his head and roared at his junior sister. The wooden sword across his chest suddenly shattered.

His whole body instantly bent like a drawn bow, then was blasted backward with a bang.

Boom—

A huge boulder exploded apart, rubble flying everywhere.

A figure that looked like a wild man stood at the cave entrance, brimming with arrogance and throwing his head back in wild laughter:

“Hahahaha, the profound meaning of my Five Elements Dragon-Tiger Classic has finally been comp—ah!”

Before he could finish, the wild man was smashed back into the cave by the figure hurtling at him head-on.

“Who, who has such no sense of public virtue!”

Carrying Miao Zhong, who had been sent crashing back into the cave, Qi Xiu looked indignant.

He had been in seclusion for five months.

Without sleep or rest, he had delved deeply into the mysteries.

At last, he had fused ten genuine inner scriptures into one another and merged them into the profound meaning of the Five Elements Dragon-Tiger Classic.

He had forged this Dao-entry scripture from nothing, opening a wholly new path.

Who would have thought that the moment he came out of seclusion, someone would slam-dunk him?

Who could tolerate that!

“Where did this madman come from? If you know what’s good for you, get lost, or this sovereign will eat you alive!”

Licking blood from his face, the wolf demon glared at Qi Xiu with a vicious threat.

“Brother… be careful. That wolf demon is… half a step into the Dao…”

Miao Zhong, still held in Qi Xiu’s grasp, weakly warned him.

Frowning, Qi Xiu glanced at the gaping hole in Miao Zhong’s chest, from which life was plainly slipping away, and flicked out a finger, sending a pure purple qi into him to keep him alive.

“Half a step into the Dao? So what if it is the Dao?”

He set Miao Zhong down, then stepped forward in one stride.

His figure shifted sideways in an instant, strange and peerless, and he appeared before the wolf demon out of thin air.

“You, you madman…”

Startled by Qi Xiu’s ghostlike movement, the wolf demon recovered and bared its teeth in a ferocious grin.

A claw slammed down.

It was about to rip off this madman’s head and see whether there was water in his brains.

Qi Xiu calmly watched the descending wolf claw.

He raised his hand and seized it. In a blur of afterimages, his fingers closed instantly around the wolf demon’s wrist.

What?!

Feeling as though its right hand had been clamped in an iron shackle, veins bulging all over its body, the wolf demon strained madly, and the ground beneath its feet shattered inch by inch.

Yet even so, the seized wrist could not descend another fraction.

“This is impossible!”

How could a human have more strength than him, a demon? The wolf demon’s pupils shook violently.

“You’re sweating, little brother.”

With a faint smile, Qi Xiu clenched his five fingers around the wrist, then turned and smashed the creature downward with all his force.

Bang!

The earth exploded. A wolf demon’s outline was violently stamped into the ground.

“You mad—”

“You still want to play? Fine, I’ll indulge you.”

Bang bang bang bang!

Like a torn cotton quilt being flung here and there by Qi Xiu, the wolf demon’s shrill screams echoed to the heavens.

Qin Zhu, Miao Zhong, and the remaining wolf-blooded fiends all stared in dumbfounded shock.

Which of these two was the demon and which was the human?

The merciless beating lasted for several minutes before Qi Xiu finally grew bored and tossed the wolf demon away.

Every bone and organ in its body had been shattered, and it sprawled on the ground like a heap of mud.

The wolf demon stared blankly at the sky above, murmuring:

“Kill me… kill me…”

“Run!”

Seeing how terrifying Qi Xiu was, the remaining wolf-blooded fiends no longer cared about the wolf demon still spewing nonsense and vomiting his entrails on the ground. They turned to flee.

“Why run? My bag is warm in winter and cool in summer. Come in and sit for a while.”

How could he let these ready-made alchemical materials slip away?

Qi Xiu smiled gently.

He took a treasure pouch from his robes and tossed it into the air.

His lips moved as he recited the controlling incantation.

The treasure pouch floating in midair opened on its own.

A surge of devouring force burst forth, instantly seizing the fleeing fiends and the wolf demon alike, sweeping them all into the pouch.

Catching the falling treasure pouch, Qi Xiu shook it lightly and smiled in satisfaction.

Not bad. Gather a little more, and he could refine another Gathering-Origin Pill.

“Many thanks for saving my life, senior. I am Miao Zhong of the Profound Sword Gate, and this is my junior sister Qin Zhu. If not for you today, the two of us would surely have perished at the mouths of these fiends.”

Clutching his chest as he stepped forward, Miao Zhong gazed at Qi Xiu with reverence.

This senior was truly formidable.

Not only was his combat prowess peerless, but even his healing arts were miraculous.

That wolf demon’s claw had nearly shattered his heart, lungs, tendons, and meridians.

Yet this senior merely pointed once, and his severed meridians were reconnected.

Even the wounds on his heart and lungs had healed by nearly half.

Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.

“Profound Sword Gate?”

Qi Xiu glanced at the honest-looking Miao Zhong before him, then tucked away the treasure pouch and looked around at the clear, tranquil sky.

He had spent five months in seclusion in this barren mountain cave.

Day and night reversed, no sleep and no rest.

From nothing, he had cultivated one true inner scripture after another, then merged ten such scriptures into the profound meaning of the Five Elements Dragon-Tiger Classic, forging this Dao-entry scripture.

The process seemed simple enough, but in truth every step demanded immense effort.

Fortunately, the gains from such vast and arduous labor were equally substantial.

Once the profound meaning of the Five Elements Dragon-Tiger Classic was forged, he would no longer need to slowly draw in primordial harmony through the external contest of dragon and tiger.

Instead, he could circulate yin and yang directly within his body, refining them into primordial harmony.

From then on, with an endless supply of primordial harmony, he could continuously activate the Body-Refining of Primordial Harmony and push forward the progress of the ancient Gathering Heavens Stellar Qi.

He would be ready at any time to receive the heavenly trial and step into the Dao.

The Body-Refining of Primordial Harmony aims to continuously transform my bloodline, raising it from the ordinary into the transcendent.

Compared with those great sects that merely inherit the blood and bones of their predecessors, I am effectively forging a new bloodline.

As an original bloodline, my flesh is pure and powerful.

It is even more domineering than a demon’s.

But the Body-Refining of Primordial Harmony also has its flaws.

Something born from nothing will surely incur Heaven’s jealousy.

My stellar tribulation may well be unprecedentedly terrifying.

Gazing upward, Qi Xiu felt a deep, invisible pressure gathering over him.

A sense of inescapable doom stood like a steel blade above his head, ready to fall at any moment.

That was the stellar tribulation stirring in the shadows.

Lying in wait for the weakest instant, it would descend like thunder and erase this great and unwarranted “aberration” from existence.

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The End of Chapter

The third of three