Chapter 294: Divine Might Is Unfathomable, Rare Treasure Secured (Third Chapter, Bonus Two Chapters, Requesting Subscription)
Those who went said the one killed by Lord Yuan was a jiao.
It must be the ancient jiao from the Ten Thousand Mountains.
Ning Zhongtian and Tan Hu were chatting.
The cultivators who went to the battlefield found nothing but a few jiao scales.
By the time they arrived, the battle was already over.
Lord Yuan had long since left.
The great battle between man and jiao left a massive crater in the Ten Thousand Mountains—a crater that hadn't existed before, carved out by Lord Yuan's spear.
After returning.
Everyone marveled at Lord Yuan's divine might.
After this minor incident.
The Qinghe Hunting Grounds returned to normal.
Outside the Qinghe Hunting Grounds.
Ten li.
Deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains.
"Big brother, we should be safe here."
The young jiao said.
Li Rui nodded.
That day, the young jiao told him everything he had seen.
Yuan Dingting was not, as rumors claimed, someone who happened upon an evil jiao and slew it to uphold justice; according to the young jiao, he had planned it all along.
During these days of hunting in the enclosure.
Lord Yuan had been alone in the Ten Thousand Mountains, searching for something.
At first, the young jiao, upon hearing reports from his beast subordinates, didn't think much of it.
Only when the ancient jiao emerged did he realize Yuan Dingting was after the ancient jiao hidden in the Ten Thousand Mountains, nearly ready to become a dragon.
Divine might is unfathomable!
The world believed Yuan Dingting chose Qinghe as the hunting ground at random, but now it was clear he had planned it all along—Li Rui and even Wang Li had been pushed by an invisible hand.
"Mm, it's safe."
Li Rui nodded.
Then he saw the young jiao's belly bulge, and a scale the size of a human head was spat out.
"Is this… the ancient jiao's scale?"
Li Rui raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Yes!"
The young jiao grinned, looking at Li Rui as if expecting praise.
The battle was raging.
As the only spectator, the young jiao had spotted this scale early.
He swallowed it before anyone arrived and fled.
This scale differed from the others—it was the one most saturated with the aura of the inverted scale.
As for the inverted scale.
It had been taken by Yuan Dingting.
The ancient jiao didn't die—it escaped—but Yuan Dingting ripped out its inverted scale, or rather, his entire mission was to obtain the ancient jiao's inverted scale.
The inverted scale is the core of the jiao's essence.
Once torn out, it would take decades to recover.
This scale the young jiao possessed, though far less precious than the inverted scale, was still extraordinary.
Li Rui smiled faintly and returned the scale to the young jiao.
"Xiao Bai, this is yours—I won't take it."
The young jiao shook his head: "Without big brother, how could I have transformed? Your grace is beyond repayment—I must insist you take this scale."
He transformed at the fifth stage.
The weight of this transformation could only be truly understood by jiao-kind—it was nothing short of defying heaven and rewriting fate.
No wonder such a proud creature would willingly follow Li Rui.
Seeing he couldn't refuse.
Li Rui said: "Xiao Bai, hold onto this scale for me for now—give it to me when we return to Qinghe."
He hadn't asked the young jiao to produce the treasure inside the hunting ground.
He feared someone might notice.
The methods of those cultivators were extraordinary—he had to be cautious.
That's why he slipped away during patrol to come here secretly.
"Alright."
The young jiao nodded and vanished into the deep forest.
Only Li Rui remained, lost in thought.
'Ten Thousand Mountains'
The half-month hunt ended.
Finally.
Two elders from major sects and an elder from a powerful clan—all three were Foundation Establishment masters—placed in the top three.
All received rewards from Lord Yuan.
They were divine pills forged by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau—only pills of third rank or higher could be called divine pills, and a third-rank divine pill was immensely precious to fourth-rank cultivators.
It drew envy from everyone.
Whether anyone would kill to steal these treasures remained unknown.
The autumn hunt was over.
Lord Yuan appeared only once on the final day, then immediately set off for Yunzhou.
Cao Wei and Li Rui watched the distant, grand procession.
They slowly exhaled.
Mission accomplished.
Though the autumn hunt had some complications, it was overall completed smoothly.
A major achievement secured.
Notably, as he left, Lord Yuan personally thanked the four chief officials of Qinghe for their hard work.
That simple phrase may sound trivial.
But its underlying influence was immense—Li Rui and Cao Wei's names were surely already recorded in the ledgers of those old advisors.
Yes, priority for promotion.
Cao Wei bowed to Li Rui: "Big Brother Li, I owe you a debt—I'll repay it."
Without you, Big Brother Li, this wouldn't have gone so smoothly.
At least the hunting beasts alone would've been a massive hurdle.
Li Rui waved his hand: "Brother Cao, no need for such formality—we're all in the Anning Guard. One rises, we all rise; one falls, we all fall."
Cao Wei smiled.
He said no more—some things were best kept in the heart.
As Lord Yuan had said.
For cultivators, character comes first.
Those who rise to great heights may be righteous or ruthless, but one trait unites them all: they hold firm to something.
Cao Wei was no different.
He knew his debts and grudges.
Li Rui clapped Cao Wei on the shoulder:
"Let's go, Brother Cao—we've earned some rest."
"Master."
Wang Zhao was watering flowers when he heard footsteps outside.
He looked up.
There stood Li Rui. "Little Zhao, I'm back."
Li Rui beamed at his diligent, hardworking apprentice.
He'd been away a full month.
The longest he'd ever been from home—and he'd missed it. Now that he was back, he heard Liu Tiezhu and Tiekuang hammering away in the forge.
Li Rui walked into the back courtyard.
He watched the two men working fiercely.
He stood there for a long while.
Liu Tiezhu finally noticed Li Rui and grinned wide: "Master, you're back!"
Li Rui rolled his eyes.
Just by looking at Liu Tiezhu's expression, it was clear the fool was so obsessed with forging that he hadn't even noticed his master had been gone for a month.
"Worthless disciple!"
Not a single word, not a single line, not a single detail—nothing!
Li Rui shook his head.
He saw Liu Tiezhu turning back to his forging.
Tiekuang showed no intention of acknowledging him; standing there did no good, so he decided to pay a visit to the Tian Di Alliance.
As he turned to leave—
Tiekuang's voice suddenly rang out: "You, stop."
Li Rui froze in place.
He turned his head.
There he saw Tiekuang had already set down his hammer, eyes gleaming as he stared fixedly at him.
"Senior Tie—"
He was about to speak.
But Tiekuang cut in: "Did you kill that ancient dragon from the Ten Thousand Mountains? How else could you carry dragon-soul miasma?"
"No."
"No, no, no."
"I've seen that old dragon. It didn't have that kind of power. This miasma on you? You couldn't get it from killing just one old dragon."
Tiekuang muttered to himself.
Li Rui's heart leapt: "Senior, how did you know?"
Tiekuang snorted: "Boy, don't you know what kind of blade I forge?"
"I've been holding the Dragon Blade every day—if I couldn't sense this, my two hundred years of Wu Gong would've been wasted."
His tone grew urgent:
"Tell me—what kind of fortune have you stumbled upon?"
Li Rui suddenly understood.
At first, he'd feared a Xian-level cultivator had some hidden method of detection.
If that were true,
wouldn't those old bastards in Qinghe Enclosure have already spotted the signs?
Hearing Tiekuang's explanation, he finally relaxed.
He didn't hide the truth:
"Senior, it was Marshal Yuan—he nearly killed a dragon on the verge of becoming a true dragon."
At this,
even Tiekuang sucked in a sharp breath.
A dragon on the verge of becoming a true dragon.
At least Second Rank.
Yuan Dingting actually dared to kill one? That was terrifying.
"No wonder he's the Martial Sage of Yu State—his actions are truly formidable."
After thinking long and hard, Tiekuang could only say this.
Li Rui: "Senior Tie, I happened to acquire a scale from a dragon. I was just about to ask you to take a look."
Saying this,
he pulled the dragon scale from his chest—the one Xiao Baijiao had given him back in Huicheng.
Tiekuang had sensed the dragon's miasma precisely because of this scale.
The moment the scale appeared,
Tiekuang couldn't look away.
"Excellent! Truly excellent!"
It was top-tier forging material—rare beyond price.
Watching Tiekuang's reaction, Li Rui pushed his hand forward slightly: "If Senior likes it, take it. You can return it later."
If it were anyone else, he'd have kept it hidden—never revealed so much.
But Tiekuang was different. After spending time with him, Li Rui was certain of his character—he wasn't the kind to betray trust for gain.
Besides, Tiekuang had helped him plenty already.
A drop of kindness deserves a spring in return.
If he offered it as a gift, Tiekuang would likely refuse—but if he called it a loan, the burden would be lighter.
He did this because he truly wanted to give the scale to Tiekuang.
Tiekuang froze, looking up at Li Rui.
"You, boy—"
No wonder he always said Li Rui was sharp—this wasn't a loan. It was a gift.
He often says Li Rui is clever—this isn't borrowing, it's outright giving him the thing.
"I'll take it."
"Don't worry—I never take anything for free. Not from you, either."
"My Wu Dao has long since reached its limit. I have no taste for fighting anymore. I only love forging weapons. I took this scale to repay my master's debt to the Divine Weapon Manor. But if I can forge another divine weapon, I'll give it to you."
"My martial path has long reached its end; I have no more desire for fighting or killing. I merely enjoy forging weapons. I'll take this item of yours—earlier, returning the divine weapon was to repay my master's debt, and it must remain at Divine Weapon Manor. But if I can still forge a divine weapon now, I'll give it to you, boy."
"Senior—"
He'd assumed Tiekuang would use the scale to enhance his existing divine blade. He never expected him to forge an entirely new one.
That wasn't his intention.
Tiekuang waved his hand: "Don't overthink it. My divine blade already drained half my life's spiritual energy. Whether I can forge another divine weapon is still uncertain—don't get your hopes too high."
Tie Kuang waved his hand: "Don't overthink it, boy. The divine knife has already drained the spiritual energy I spent most of my life cultivating. Whether I can forge another divine weapon is still uncertain—don't get your hopes up too high."
but the fire in Tiekuang's eyes made it clear—he was already desperate to begin.
For a weaponsmith, forging two divine weapons?
That would be worth dying for.
Of course, he wasn't Gan Jiang or Mo Ye—forging a weapon wouldn't actually kill him.
Tiekuang wasn't that mad.
"Enough. I need to enter seclusion to restore my spirit. If I need you, I'll call."
"Enough. I need to enter seclusion to restore my spirit. If I need you, boy, I'll call you then."
he kicked Liu Tiezhu:
"Idiot, get up and work!"
"Idiot, get up and get to work."
Liu Tiezhu nodded eagerly, face alight with excitement.
He'd heard every word between Li Rui and Tiekuang.
He'd thought just participating in the forging of one divine weapon would be enough. Now, a second chance? His energy surged.
He had thought just participating in the forging of one divine weapon would be enough for a lifetime—yet now there was a second chance, and his enthusiasm was boundless.
Seeing this, Li Rui said nothing more.
As Tiekuang said, the chance of forging a second divine weapon was vanishingly small. One dragon scale? Consider it an investment. Even if it failed, it could still serve as practice—no waste.
Tiekuang and Liu Tiezhu resumed their work.
Each to his craft.
Li Rui had no role to play here, so he left the back courtyard and headed toward the Tian Di Alliance.
"Maybe Old Tie really can forge two divine weapons?"
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