Chapter 329: A Flash of Silver Dragon Enters the Abyss Water

Following the administration of the Life-Prolonging Pill, Hanyang's aura gradually stabilized, but due to the fact that he had forced his body to perform witchcraft just moments before, his internal reserves were depleted, and it was unlikely he would wake up for a while. Fortunately, his life was not in danger; after a thorough examination, Lingxiang finally set her mind at ease.

As long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood; as long as a person is alive, everything can be managed.

That black cloth, which had resembled the canopy of heaven, had also ceased its trembling; like stagnant water, it moved no more. With a wave of his long arms, the Ghost-Faced man retracted his divine ability. The sky remained as overcast with dark clouds as before, yet the human world had become a purgatory.

Flames soared into the sky all around Jiuque Mountain; within the mountain, one could hear the incessant roars of demons and the agonizing wails of spirit entities.

Lingxiang did not know what the catastrophe fourteen years ago had looked like, but everything she saw before her now filled her with unbearable heartache.

This was her home! It was the place where she had grown up carefree and unrestrained, the place where she had been willful and reckless without a single worry!

Gazing at the flames soaring into the sky within the mountain—a scene more tragic and striking than the sunset after a scorching day—Lingxiang stood dazed for a moment, then, as if having made a firm decision, she took a pill from her waist.

This pill was entirely silver-white, its luster restrained, looking quite ordinary.

This pill was one of the Small Fu Prescription pills Lingxiang had refined while at Ding'anju. There were two in total, one Supreme Grade and one Middle Grade, and this one was the Middle Grade pill.

During the battle at Ding'anju, Lingxiang had deeply realized her own powerlessness. She did not want to see anyone sacrifice themselves for her again, so she had attempted to develop this type of pill.

This pill did not yet have a name; it was merely something Lingxiang had refined on a whim, aiming to use the power of an external pill to draw upon the spirit of an internal elixir, temporarily stimulating her own potential to perform impossible witchcraft.

Although that was the theory, Lingxiang did not know if it would actually work, as she had never tried it before. Moreover, since it was a forced stimulation of internal power, there would surely be significant side effects, though what those might be, she did not yet know.

Furthermore, since it involved stimulating the power of an Inner Elixir, one had to possess a complete Inner Elixir to begin with.

Although Lingxiang was at the Condensing Pill Realm of the Foundation Establishment Path, her cultivation base had come about in a peculiar way.

The Foundation Establishment Path has three realms: first is the Wandering Spirit Realm, second is the Condensing Spirit Realm, and third is the Condensing Pill Realm.

The so-called Wandering Spirit is the circulation of Qi through the meridians to relax the muscles and activate the channels, using the Internal Observation Method to probe the body's deficiencies and compensate for them; Condensing Spirit is the gathering of internal Qi within the body to build a Qi Pool in a corner of the sea of consciousness, used to nourish the Qi; and Condensing Pill is the gathering of the Qi from the sea of consciousness to nourish the Qi-Origin, and when the time is ripe, one can condense Qi into an elixir, break through to the Golden Core, and step into the Jiedan Realm.

A person with a Residual Spirit Root can at most reach the Qi Refining Realm, but Lingxiang had been at the Wandering Spirit Realm for as long as she could remember, and within two or three years, she had broken through to Condensing Pill. However, those with incomplete Spirit Roots cannot nourish Qi, and if the Qi is incomplete, the elixir cannot condense, let alone speak of forming an Inner Elixir to break through to the Golden Core path.

Moreover, since ancient times, there has never been a cultivator who could step into Foundation Establishment without first tempering the body and refining Qi. Lingxiang had discovered this long ago, but she had never been able to figure out the reason why.

If one were to say it was because she inherited the bloodline of the Tumi Ancient God, Lingxiang felt nothing of the sort; yet if it were because of her Half-Demon Body, Lingxiang was still able to practice the Five Elements Path.

It is not that the Demon Race cannot practice the Dao; it is just that as members of the Demon Race, their souls are incomplete and the Five Elements are difficult to gather, so naturally, practicing the Dao is much more difficult.

Returning to Lingxiang: since she could not nourish Qi, she could not condense an elixir, so theoretically, this pill might not be effective for her, not to mention the unknown backlash she might face. However, she was at the end of her rope and could not afford to overthink it.

The Ghost-Faced man only managed to catch a glimpse of a silver light flashing by; he wanted to reach out to stop her, but the pill had already been swallowed by Lingxiang.

To the Ghost-Faced man, regardless of the motive or who she really was, the most important thing right now was to keep Lingxiang safe. Yet, the resolute expression on her face when she swallowed the pill made him worry.

What this girl might do was truly hard to say.

Just as the Ghost-Faced man was worrying, he saw Spirit Qi overflowing from Lingxiang's entire body—strand by strand, thread by thread—soft yet resilient, swirling and drifting into the surroundings.

As soon as the pill hit her stomach, Lingxiang hurriedly pinched her fingers to catalyze it. In an instant, she felt the Spirit Qi within her body rushing rapidly, and her heart meridians became unprecedentedly clear. She did not know where these streams of Spirit Power were coming from; although she felt the Spirit Power was abundant, her dantian remained empty.

The dantian is the place where the Qi Pool condenses the elixir; this could only mean that her path of cultivation had reached its end in this life.

Forget it, forget it; even so, what of it?

Lingxiang stood up and walked toward the stone steps, forming a complex set of hand seals.

These hand seals were very strange, and the Ghost-Faced man had no idea what she was trying to do, but that was to be expected. Let alone the Ghost-Faced man, even if the Elders of Wuji Hall were present, they would not be able to guess what Lingxiang intended.

This was a technique Lingxiang had comprehended herself. Its first form was the Lianxin Sword Art, gathering Spirit Qi at the fingertips, using the fingers as swords to slay evil and eliminate wickedness; the second form was the Lotus Heart Sword Array, where lotus petals acted as blades, fragrance overflowed, and within ten paces, all was a sword array.

Lingxiang had performed these two moves before, but there was a third move that had never been shown to anyone.

It was not that Lingxiang did not want to perform the third form; given her personality, she would have loved to post notices and announce to the world with great fanfare just how powerful she was. It was just that although she had comprehended the third form, her cultivation was shallow and she lacked sufficient Spirit Power to execute it; every time she tried, it ended in failure.

But now, she had been given such an opportunity.

The Lotus Heart Technique is essentially a type of Five Elements witchcraft. Its first form is based on Wood with Metal as an auxiliary; the second form is based on Metal with Water as an auxiliary; as for this third form, it is the technique of Water and Wood generating each other.

After a series of intricate hand seals, the Spirit Power overflowing from her body became like a silk ribbon in the wind, instantly flying up, gathering or entwining, and rising toward the sky.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the Spirit Silk dissipated. One could see lightning flashing and thunder rumbling amidst the dark clouds, a constant, deafening roar, and the Demon Soldiers that had been flying down seemed to have decreased significantly.

The thunder in the clouds did not cease, and the wildly swirling dark clouds became even more turbulent, rolling and scattering to cover the entire Jiuque Mountain Range.

A silver snake flashed across, as if splitting the mass of dark clouds, and in an instant, a torrential rain poured down, drenching Jiuque Mountain without any warning.

Jiuque Mountain, which had been engulfed in flames, gradually extinguished in this sudden downpour, and even the smoke and dust vanished completely.

Seeing this, the Ghost-Faced man exclaimed in wonder: This little girl actually has such ability?

But what the Ghost-Faced man did not know was that this rain was not ordinary rainwater.

The disciples who had been lying scattered outside Wuji Hall gradually woke up in this downpour. The external wounds on their bodies gradually healed under the washing of the rain, and even the internal injuries caused by heavy force did not hurt as much as before.

"This is..." the Ghost-Faced man could not help but exclaim aloud.

"I haven't decided what to call it yet," a graceful figure stood tall in the rain, looking not the least bit disheveled, "but I think the two characters 'Entering the Abyss' are quite appropriate."

The silver dragon enters the abyss water, the soft and dormant scales awaken.