Chapter 1520

"Quick, quick, quick, hang that one up, pull it higher—whoops, too high, too high."

Atop the Tianbo Tower, a massive canvas screen unfurled slowly around the floor, white as snow.

Several minor officials bustled about, climbing up and down, while another two held ladders, the feather dusters in their hands tapping gently, terrified of brushing even a speck of dust onto it.

"What is that?" A passerby looked left and right. "Such a big fuss."

A pedestrian glanced up: "Dragon Dragon Lingxiao!"

The passerby was baffled. "What kind of gauze is Dragon Dragon Lingxiao? I've only heard of Huangzhou Jiao Gauze. My heavens, made into silk stockings it's truly sensational—faintly visible, soul-stealing, heart-shaking. A pity, too expensive."

"Dragon Dragon Lingxiao and Jiao Gauze are the same, both woven by the Jiao people, just different materials. Dragon Dragon Lingxiao is over a hundred times more precious than Jiao Gauze. One bolt costs no less than a thousand taels of gold. A half-spirit weapon, it can change colors and display scenes on its own. In each of the Huai King's thirteen fiefs, there is such a piece, running day and night, projecting shadow plays for twelve hours straight."

"Hiss." The passerby gasped in shock. "So precious, yet hung outside to be blown by wind and rained on? Aren't you afraid someone will snip a piece off? Or do you have a Wolf Smoke martial artist guarding it day and night?"

"I see you don't understand a thing. Are you even from Huangzhou? What remote corner did you crawl out of?"

"Haha, doing business in Huangzhou doesn't make you a Huangzhou local."

"No wonder, I detected an accent." The pedestrian sneered. "That's the legendary Demon Emperor, equivalent to the handiwork of our Immortals, you know? They're spread across the whole world.

After the New Year, on the twenty-fifth of the second month, the East Sea Grand Hunt. All the Martial Saints and Demon Kings under heaven must participate. Look—when the time comes, we'll be able to watch right here on this Dragon Dragon Lingxiao.

Wait a couple more days, until the first month, and the waterways on the Ba River will open. No need to spend money on tickets—you can go straight to the East Sea's Cloud Heaven Palace, and even trade with sea beasts. Heard everything there is white, made of mist and clouds, soft and fluffy."

"Even Martial Saints hold a Grand Hunt?" The passerby stared wide-eyed. A Grandmaster was already a big shot they didn't dare dream of. Martial Saints, even more formidable than Grandmasters, attend a Grand Hunt?

"Why wouldn't they? Immortals! The Emperor's Emperor—can you afford to not give face? Lose face, and they'll make you pay for it later! And the Grand Hunt naturally has rewards. Commoners earn copper coins, martial artists earn silver, Grandmasters earn gold. Don't Martial Saints need to earn something too? You become an Immortal, and once you're an Immortal, maybe you won't need to earn anything at all."

The passerby clicked their tongue in wonder, craning their neck to watch the officials setting things up, secretly anticipating the New Year's arrival.

Great Shun, Southern Frontier, and Northern Court—three parties allied, no wars, mutual trade.

Human race, demon race, jointly holding a grand gathering.

Wherever you want to go, buy a ticket and take the waterway—within half a day you can reach any corner of the world, go to the legendary East Sea, watch whales spout water columns thirty meters high.

Go to the legendary Yixing for a visit, and everyone will suddenly put down their work and cheer together, celebrating the birth of the Jianghuai Rally champion.

Simply a Golden Age.

On the cowhide map, red markers were stuck everywhere, two Bagua Five Elements Panels pressing down the corners.

A large hand pressed down on two of them, moving them in turn before Zhang Longxiang and Ge Zu.

"Not the first time descending to the Underworld. Everyone knows how to use this thing, I won't belabor it. Ge Zu, this time Longxiang King and I moving out is enough. You need to hold down the rear, act as the observer's perspective, make calm judgments.

After merging, our authorities are shared—anyone can use them. Your authority is the key to whether we all retreat intact. At the same time, you must focus entirely on our conditions.

Facing the Third Immortal, everything is unknown. He might be swift as wind, or fast as lightning, or even more likely shock our minds and spirits, leaving us unable to move, waiting for death. Even if we can survive using authority, not easily dying, we may not have time to react.

So relying solely on Fan Xiao and Body Preceding Death still might not be enough to respond in time. That's when we need Ge Zu to monitor closely, using the fluidity of my Position Fruit to transfer wounds onto yourself, then have Fan Xiao devour them to aid healing. This will be hard work for Ge Zu."

"This might hurt a bit, oh." Third Prince interjected, and was flicked flying again.

Ge Zu silently accepted the Five Elements Panel, nodding: "Rest assured."

——

"Longxiang King, logically the two of us acting together would be safer, but we're racing against time. Our divine abilities are shared—we can all use Heavenly Dog Eclipsing the Sun. With the Third Immortal's pressure, splitting up yields greater benefit. When the time comes, we'll simultaneously use the Five Elements Panels. Landing points random, each advancing along the route that maximizes benefit."

Zhang Longxiang also accepted the Five Elements Panel: "Understood. When do we move?"

Liang Qu lowered his head, gazing intently at the map.

"In a few more days, Cloud Heaven Palace opens. We must make a trip to the East Sea, so we choose mid-January! If any changes occur during this period I'll notify you in advance. What needs doing now is to engrave this map into instinct!"

"Good!"

Zhang Longxiang showed not a trace of fear.

Ge Zu, over seven hundred years old, actually grew tense along with them.

Grand Hunt in late second month, descending to the Underworld a month prior—truly tight scheduling.

No idea where Liang Qu got this map.

But as long as we achieve————

Ge Zu looked toward Zhang Longxiang.

Immortal!

Will a Fourth Immortal of the current era appear?

Liang Qu walked to the window, gazing at the Dragon Dragon Lingxiao on the Yingchun Tower, rising and falling gently in the wind.

Over 6,200 times Genhai, Ninth-Rank divine ability, multiple Position Fruit authorities—with such a configuration, against any single Calamity Dragon, if the opponent manages to block him for even a single breath, it would count as his own lack of skill. He'd accept the loss willingly.

The Lotus Bodhisattva who once blocked all of them single-handedly—a year later can only serve as a speed bump.

The only pressure is the Third Immortal!

Calamity Dragon melting furnace—no matter what, it can't withstand it.

What they need to do isn't confrontation, but survival. The difficulty of the two cannot be compared.

Under the Third Immortal's pressure, steal the final crop of "leeks"! Though killing for advancement doesn't sit well, thinking that these people should have died long ago makes it much more bearable.

"Divine ability rank—can still be raised!"

By the Yellow Shahe.

"No good?" Old Dragon Lord looked at Liang Qu, whose palm was pressed against his own.

Liang Qu shook his head: "Not working. It's as if he's a Calamity Dragon who's already at the Awakening Realm by nature—can't continue sublimating. Ninth Rank might be the limit of divine abilities?"

The hope of sublimating Old Dragon Lord's divine ability to Eleventh Rank, then merging into all Eleventh Rank, shattered.

"That's probably it. I heard others say divine abilities condensed to Ninth Rank have no way to keep rising. Before, I wasn't just at this level. Pity. If my authority were still here, maybe it could coordinate with your sublimation." Old Dragon Lord sighed.

"————" Liang Qu didn't know what to say.

Old man, did you used to talk to the Whale Emperor like this too?

The Undefeated Golden Body of the Dragon-Tiger Golden Body Fifth Rank—so far no one at Suspended Temple has cultivated it successfully. At most the Fourth Rank, 'Drawing a Circle as a Prison.' Being able to condense a divine ability to this level is basically the limit. To go further, only those with extraordinary lifespan and talent like the Dragon King or Ball Algae King can spend vast time pondering.

Fifth Rank Undefeated Golden Body blocking a melting furnace strike is mostly bragging. Ninth Rank should be fine, right?

The Old Dragon Lord asked, "When do you plan to make your move?"

"One month's time."

"Then you won't make it in time."

The Old Dragon Lord pondered for a moment and discovered a timing issue: a Position Fruit's promotion and refinement basically all take two months or more; if one encounters a refinement with time requirements, several years is perfectly normal.

"No matter." Liang Qu smiled carefreely. "I just like a bit of excitement — I'll work hard in secret, then stun everyone!"

The Old Dragon Lord raised a dragon claw: "I like your personality, young man — you're fierce. I'm optimistic about you. Blow them away!"

"Master Huizhen————"

"Elder Qi————"

"Good friends in the Netherworld with decent connections————"

Receiving a list once more, Liang Qu contacted Pai Xiao Xing, removed several red dots, and crossed out two areas.

Below Fledgling Dragon, they couldn't spare the mental focus to pay attention, so he simply didn't go, to avoid friendly fire.

"Crash!"

The pond, ripples rolling back.

"Long Eying!" Liang Qu looked up. "How did things go with the White Dragon King?"

"All settled. Promoting the 'Dragon Spirit Art'." Dragon Long Eying shook water off her body. "Anyone who cultivates it successfully can come to Huaijiang and receive a portion of Inferior Great Medicine. I had Yuan Tou dispatch Jiang Tun to distribute a portion to every Great Demon and to demon beasts whose ancestors include Great Demons."

Liang Qu felt a surge of excitement.

Good, good, good.

Full-scale promotion!

As long as they cultivate the 'Dragon Spirit Art', dragon-lineage aura can all be doubled. Extracting the aura of Great Demon ancestors — it depends on how many dragon-lineage Great Demons can be left behind. This part will likely exceed demon beasts breaking through to Great Demon, especially in the Ehe.

On the Huaijiang side, even though flood dragons sent back quite a few remains, it ultimately doesn't amount to much.

The Yellow Shahe is even less worth mentioning. The Dragon Carp clan originally cultivated, and the 'Dragon Spirit Art' came from them. The remaining Dragon Loach and Dragon Gudgeon clans are just a tiny handful.

In terms of completeness of "ancestral" remains, it's still the E River!

The 'Dragon Spirit Art' — Liang Qu, through his own stacked twenty-three-fold talent and Giant Spirit Authority, had lowered the cultivation difficulty to an extremely low level. Two months — absolutely can succeed.

Most critically, the 'Dragon Spirit Art' can greatly boost combat power, with enormous benefits for demon beasts as well.

Now everything is ready.

Pity that no matter how fast, it can't catch up before the Netherworld acts————

*Knock knock knock————*

Finger joints rapping on the table, Liang Qu suddenly looked up at Dragon Long Eying, gaze bright and piercing.

"What are you looking at me for?" Dragon Long Eying touched her cheek. No waterweed stuck.

"I'm thinking about something————"

Dragon Long Eying rolled her eyes: "Broad daylight, what are you thinking about?"

"?"

The pure know their own purity.

The person by my pillow actually has this kind of misunderstanding about me.

Liang Qu didn't want to explain, disdained to explain. He lifted a soft breast, thinking of another matter.

Back when he took in Qi, the compound Heavenly Dew Long Qi he used was also the foundation of Heavenly Origin.

The most critical parts were three: Sun, Time Sequence, Dead Wood Meets Spring. Without these three, it's not necessarily Heavenly Origin. Correspondingly, Xuan Huang, Heavenly Water Morning Dew, and Size Ruyi are each a notch less important. Swapping out one or two of them might not have an effect.

Long Eying, on the other hand, is purely Yin Long Qi.

Sun and Yin.

Are, so far, the only single strands of Long Qi exceeding ten thousand essence that Liang Qu has obtained.

The rest — Time Sequence, Xuan Dragon, Heaven Xuan Earth Yellow Human Harmony — are all compound Long Qi. Though two years late, Sun and Yin are intimately related to the Bing Fire Day Qi of the Three Suns Rising Together.

Such qualities — what kind of Self-Born Position Fruit can they nurture?

Under the premise of jointly cultivating the 'Yin Yang Spirit Seed Art', can it resonate with his Heavenly Origin?

Gou Mang can jump two stages directly. Combined with a 6,200-fold Root Sea, he might be able to directly accumulate a "sprout".

"No, not secure enough. Need to raise the stakes————"

Liang Qu looked inward at the peach tree in his Lower Dantian. After the Ehe Thunder Tribulation and the Lu Cang River Thunder Tribulation, it was once more laden with fruit.

Besides nurturing Fei Lian and descending to the Netherworld to seize food, he quietly set a third goal.

Worth a try!

But not now.

Liang Qu surveyed all events and decided to slot the timing in after three trips to the Netherworld.

"Can use the Giant Spirit to refine the 'Yin Yang Spirit Seed Art' once more————"

Ten days passed in a flash.

January 1st.

East Sea, Cloud Heaven Palace officially opened.

In an instant, the entire harbor was packed with ships. The Shark King and Ray King were extremely busy.

Large quantities of goods spread out, traded.

Normal waterways all charge by mileage, buying tickets. But the route to Cloud Heaven Palace, respecting the Whale Emperor's wish, only charges a symbolic three copper coins.

Everyone wants to come join the fun. Waterway efficiency maxed out. Every quarter-hour sees massive passenger throughput, dense crowds everywhere.

Pure white stone steps everywhere, especially the viewing area, like a beast-fighting arena.

"River-Center Stones" from across the land arrived one after another — Martial Saints, Demon Kings, Great Manifestations — coming early to adapt to the venue. These scenes were all broadcast into the "beast-fighting arena", triggering cheers from the spectators.

At the same time, the Long Lingxiao that had been laid across the world over the past year began to play, and for the first time the "screen" lit up, firmly capturing the attention of passersby.

Those who could go to Yixing were a minority among minorities—perhaps a few hundred or a thousand per county—but the Whale Emperor had laid his network in every corner.

Many common folk had never seen such a novel form of entertainment.

"My heavens, who is that?"

"I don't know."

"Damn, who is that?"

"I don't know."

"?"

"You don't know anything—what are you even looking at?"

"How novel—where am I supposed to know what a Wu Sheng looks like? Just that Huai Wang, with victory reports every few days—do you know his height, build, fat or thin? They all say he and his wife are beautiful, but who knows, maybe they're two ugly monsters, lies told by those above to fool you—I'm the smartest, this trick won't work on me."

"I go, that makes sense."

Extremely noisy, bustling and clamorous.

Liang Qu felt that at least over a million people had come to Yuntian Palace today, and the prize pool kept accumulating—over a million people was not Yuntian Palace's limit, but the limit of the newly opened Vortex Avoidance Path.

The Whale Emperor was not present, or rather, did not wish to show himself; Liang Qu simply flickered his presence, stayed with the Wu Sheng of Dayong for two days, then immediately returned to Pingyang.

January fifteenth.

Three "River-Middle Stones" quietly gathered in the Huangsha River.

The familiar trio assembled, and the local chieftain at Yuntian Palace immediately perked up—he had noticed these three fellows for a long time, often meeting in December, surely plotting something.

The chieftain didn't know, but with these three fellows around, how would the Great Hunt win that minor position fruit?

On the Huangsha River, the cold wind blew bleakly.

Liang Qu used Dragon Fubo to cut open the wound, Ge Zu immediately circulated and transferred it to his own hand, then consumed it with the authority of the Owl Embrace.

After several drills, highly proficient.

Confirming flawless coordination, Liang Qu straightened his expression: "Ge Zu!"

Ge Zu flicked his horsetail whisk: "Rest assured, leave it to me."

"Good, Third Prince!"

"Here we come!"

The White Dragon floated, Liang Qu and Zhang Longxiang leapt into its mouth.

Only the final step remained.

"National Preceptor!"

Swish!

Crimson feathers shot out, the old toad stepped upon the Heavenly Gang steps, wearing a feathered crown, dazzling as he appeared!

Heavenly light shone, six copper plates reflected a golden luster.

No trace of doubt or hesitation remained in the heart, the dragon's kiss sealed shut.

The state of Chuan reversed in an instant, turning red and black.

Enter the Yellow Springs!

Heaven Fire Sect.

Since the fourth immortal fell, the entire Blood River Realm has been filled with a heavy atmosphere.

The Netherworld Realm invaded again, panic unable to cease all day.

Disciples of the Heaven Fire Sect wanted to clarify what had happened, yet the elders issued a gag order—three seals on their mouths—intense conflict made them tear at their liver and scratch their cheeks; eventually, with time's passage, it gradually subsided. As for the Department of Revenue losing a second-rank disciple, no one even inquired.

The Immortal Separation Assembly blesses all.

Incense curled gently, the Blood Treasure slowly sublimated, gradually shrinking.

The Lotus Great Master sat cross-legged atop the crimson gold furnace, eyes closed in cultivation. Fei Taiyu and Wu Lingxu continued their duties, everyone tacitly forgetting the events of a year ago, as if they had never occurred.

"Let us elevate the Blood Stone Stele of the Xu Void Tower to second rank." Wu Lingxu said.

"Xu Void Tower————will its strength be insufficient?"

—

Fei Taiyu furrowed his brow, gazing at the map before him dotted with bloodstone steles.

All sixth-realm mighty ones are counted by sect, using the bloodstone stele as marker.

If a new mighty one arises, a new sect forms, the bloodstone stele descends from heaven.

Conversely, if all sixth-realm mighty ones of a sect perish, the sect's bloodstone stele vanishes.

Belonging to a different kind from "River-Middle Stones," but more economical in consumption—a "pursuit of responsibility, tracking method."

New bloodstone steles are not common—the previous sect————

Better not mention it.

"In urgent times, adapt—too many vacancies."

Fei Taiyu felt this was correct; he reached out and took the corresponding bloodstone stele, ascending against the current.

At the same time.

In the mountain range where the Xu Void Tower stands, the bloodstone stele rose into the air, cheers erupting violently.

"Crackle-pop!"

Fine brittle sounds echoed, reverberating in the quiet chamber.

Wu Lingxu startled, glanced at the map, saw no anomaly, then suddenly realized something and sharply turned his gaze to Fei Taiyu.

Fei Taiyu's pupils dilated, he breathed heavily, trembling as he spread his palm—blood-colored powder scraped across his fingers, sifting down.

The stone bricks sprouted spikes.

Dead silence.

Intense impact erupted like a volcano; the Lotus Bodhisattva's mind went blank for an instant, rage sweeping through.

"How dare they!?"

Before the words fell.

"Crackle!"

Blood dust billowed; on the map, another one exploded!

>