Chapter 379: The Phoenix Cries as the Time Arrives

Inside the painting, there is no way to distinguish east from west, nor is there any night or day, and Long Qi does not know how long he has been here. Ever since his long talk with Tumi Xianzi last time, Long Qi has remained in the painting to cultivate, and the one urging him on is Sutong.

But this Sutong...

How should one put it?

Long Qi always feels that Sutong seems to have deep-seated prejudices against him; not only does she belittle and mock him at every turn, but she also constantly nitpicks his cultivation: either calling him dull, complaining that his basic skills are poor, or belittling his abilities and mocking his aptitude in every possible way.

Although they did indeed have conflicts before, wasn't that just because they didn't know who the other was? As the saying goes, one does not make friends without a fight; now that they know each other's identities, on the surface, they should be considered quite close, so why be so aggressive?

Right? They should be quite close, right?

Long Qi is a bit uncertain; after all, in terms of relationships, Sutong and Lingxiang are the ones who are fellow disciples, so to insist that she is also close to him is perhaps a bit far-fetched.

But then Long Qi thinks again, how could the two of them not be considered close?

Although it is only Sutong and Lingxiang who have a relationship now, he is going to marry Lingxiang, and in the future, he will have to address her as Senior Sister when they meet; since they will be seeing each other constantly, they cannot be at daggers drawn every single time.

Long Qi suddenly feels this is very reasonable and is just deliberating on how to open his mouth to persuade Sutong, when he suddenly hears Sutong shout sharply:

"If your intentions are not upright, how can your body be upright?!"

The sudden high-pitched voice gives Long Qi a start, and the words on the tip of his tongue dare not be spoken; he mutters with a look of grievance, his thoughts drifting back to the matters Tumi Xianzi spoke to him about.

Back then, the three clans made a pact to each leave behind a bloodline, and Tumi Xianzi acted as the go-between to lead them to Jiuque Mountain, which is what allowed Long Qi, Xin Yi, and Zhao Wuyang to become fellow disciples.

Long Qi is greatly puzzled; why leave only one person? Could it be that other people's lives are so worthless?

Tumi Xianzi, however, says that this matter was a decision made by the three clans themselves.

Preserving the bloodline was to stabilize the Demon Sealing power, which was their duty, and the reason for sacrificing the others was to use their flesh, blood, and souls to replace the Three Talents Array and temporarily restrain the Demon Race.

Therefore, many years ago, when the Demon Race suddenly retreated to the Netherworld, the reason was actually not that the Demon Lord had been wounded at the Yuanqing Sect, but rather, it was largely due to the power of the three clans' bloodlines.

"Otherwise, do you really think it was good luck that you were able to escape Nanhua unscathed?" Sutong interjects at the right moment: "That was because the heroic spirits of the Long Family were protecting you."

At that time, a strange talisman of Lingxiang's transported them to the entrance of the underground palace; although that entrance was not very safe either, it did indeed help them escape their predicament for a time.

But thinking about it now, how could Sutong have known the situation at that time, when they hadn't even met yet? But then he thinks again, it was probably Tumi Xianzi who told her; after all, at that time, Lingxiang carried this painting wherever she went, which is why Tumi Xianzi would know everything.

However, at that time, Long Qi was already at the Foundation Establishment stage, and he hadn't felt any souls or spirits; as a descendant of the Long Family, since they were the souls of his parents and elder brothers, there was no reason for them not to appear.

According to Tumi Xianzi's conjecture, they relied on their flesh, blood, and souls to replace the Longyuan Sword as the array eye, and after many years, even if they wanted to appear, they would likely be powerless to do so.

Long Qi has never cared about any damn great mission; if he could, he would only want his family to be together in peace. But just as Lingxiang said, some things must be done by someone, and if it isn't him, it will be someone else.

Now that the souls of his parents and elder brothers are confined to their former home, only by resolving the matter of the Demon Race can their shackles be undone.

Things having reached this point, Long Qi does not want to dwell on it anymore, and besides, he still has to go save Lingxiang! But there is currently no way to go to the Netherworld, and even if there were, with his current self, it would be nothing more than going to his death, which is why he is following Sutong to cultivate in the painting.

Long Qi has a Hanyu Pill in his body, making cultivation twice as hard for half the result, and although this pill came from the hands of Tumi Xianzi, even she cannot break it.

Although Tumi Xianzi has been recuperating in the painting for many years, she is merely a wisp of Primordial Spirit from when she was on the verge of death. Furthermore, a pill like the Hanyu Pill has a curse cast upon it during its refinement; only the person who administered the pill can dissolve it, and even a Da Luo Immortal would be helpless if they encountered it.

However, Tumi Xianzi also says that even though the Hanyu Pill has a suppressing power, there is no need to view it as a burden.

As the saying goes, misfortune is where fortune lies; on the surface, the Hanyu Pill does indeed seal Long Qi's pulse gates, but in reality, it is of great benefit to his cultivation.

It is just like a martial artist who often wraps sandbags around their limbs and waist to increase their load. After cultivating like this for a long time, when they take off the sandbags, they will feel as light as a swallow.

And for Long Qi, the Hanyu Pill in his body is like this sandbag.

The current Long Qi, although he finds it extremely strenuous to cultivate, those efforts are not in vain; rather, they are accumulating all his cultivation within his body, waiting for the moment the confinement is broken, at which point it will be like splitting bamboo.

Moreover, there was a deep meaning behind why Lingxiang had Long Qi take the Hanyu Pill.

Just imagine the Conferment of the Gods in the Heavenly Realm back then; those Immortal Dao deities could clearly have accomplished this in the snap of a finger, so why go to such great lengths to set up platforms and lists?

In fact, the so-called Conferment of the Gods was merely a pretext.

Unlike the Immortal Dao and the ancient gods, the power of deities stems from faith; the more believers they have, the stronger their power.

However, Shang King Di Xin did not perform sacrifices and forbade offerings to the heavens. This move seriously threatened the interests of the gods of the Heavenly Dao. Seeing that the power of faith was becoming increasingly thin, the Heavenly Emperor had no choice but to seek help from the Immortal Dao, which led to the later widely-told great undertaking of the Conferment of the Gods.

The Immortal Dao did not intervene directly, but used some unspeakable means and instigated the nobility to denounce him, crowning Di Xin with the name of a muddled and tyrannical ruler, erasing his achievements, which then provoked public anger and resentment.

The reason they did this was simply because Di Xin was a descendant of the Human King, his status equal to that of the Heavenly Emperor; even if they wanted to replace him, they lacked a righteous cause.

And to destroy the Shang, besides crowning him with the name of Zhou, the most important point was this—to kill the Human Emperor, one can only be human.

Once a person's cultivation steps into the Golden Core stage, they enter the Immortal Dao and can no longer be considered a mortal. And Long Qi is already at the Foundation Establishment Condensing Spirit Stage; given his aptitude, breaking through to the Golden Core is just around the corner, which is why Lingxiang took this step.

Although the mortal world's account of the Demon Race is biased, Lingxiang still clarified the key point: although one becomes a demon, one is ultimately descended from the Human Emperor, so there are only two types of people who can slay demons: one is a demon, and the other is a mortal.

So Lingxiang is gambling; she has placed all her bets on Long Qi.

After learning of Lingxiang's painstaking efforts, Long Qi no longer dwells on the trivial details, which is why he agreed to Tumi Xianzi's proposal for cultivation.

The Seven-Star Longyuan has been slaying demons for a hundred years, and the demon power has accumulated and coiled around it, no longer looking as it did back then; yet in these hundred years, few have been able to see its true form, and for a century, the Long Family members have only used it superficially.

Sutong herself is a demon and shares the same origin as the dragon, so she can naturally peer into Longyuan, but this sword is, after all, the treasure of the Long Family; even if she knows its mysteries, she cannot wield it.

This matter can only rely on Long Qi himself.

Long Qi is of the Long Family bloodline, and this sword was crafted by his ancestors; their spiritual veins are connected, so in theory, he should be able to wield it. It is just that Long Qi's current cultivation is shallow; he has merely become the holder of Longyuan by the convenience of his bloodline, but he is not its master.

There is a fundamental difference between the two.

A holder merely uses the sword as a weapon, following sword formulas and swinging it step by step. Therefore, once Long Qi fell into his current state, he could no longer swing Longyuan.

But a true sword master possesses the absolute loyalty of the Sword Spirit and, no matter what situation they are in, can utilize its full power.

Long Qi likely understands this principle; he once saw the Sword Spirit, who had transformed into Lingxiang's likeness, while he was in a coma. Long Qi is certain that the Sword Spirit must have been telling him something at the time, but he never took it seriously.

The true form of Longyuan?

What exactly is the true form of Longyuan?

Long Qi is deep in thought, unable to find an answer, when a burst of strange cries comes from all directions.

What is this sound?

Just as he is wondering, Tumi Xianzi suddenly appears, her eyes flickering as she looks toward the mist of water in the distance, murmuring as if to herself:

"The time has come..."

The time?

What time?