Chapter 222

Um...

Heng Xian rubbed his nose, feeling it was a bit melodramatic, and couldn't help but ask: "So, you like your master, and your master has feelings for you too, so you two are... a master-disciple love that defies worldly prejudices?"

Jiang Yuhan gazed out the window, tears streaming down her face, yet she paid no heed.

Heng Xian felt his question might have been a bit abrupt, so he lifted his wine cup and drank slowly by himself.

After a long while, Jiang Yuhan wiped the corners of her eyes, giving a bitter laugh: "I originally wanted to bury my master with my own hands, spend the rest of my life guarding his tomb to atone, but I couldn't do it. The sect claims I plotted to kill my master... hahaha..."

He laughed wildly, picked up the wine jar and gulped it down, choking and coughing.

Heng Xian sighed, finding a kind of resonance.

"Are we both wanderers adrift in the world?"

Heng Xian shook his head: "Impossible—I live more freely than anyone; I'm destined to become a transcendent being!"

The two of them fell silent.

They kept drinking.

Until the four jars were emptied.

Jiang Yuhan had drunk three and a half jars, while Heng Xian had half a jar.

Jiang Yuhan hiccuped, her vision blurred from drink: "Now... I am your captive... what do you want to do with me?"

Heng Xian raised his cup: "What do you think?"

Jiang Yuhan patted her chest: "I... am yours now, and the sisters of Clear Water Stronghold, who follow me, these unfortunate ones—please spare them!"

Heng Xian looked at her: "Are you sure you belong to me?"

"My heart is dead, my body defiled, the person is gone—what use is there in keeping it?" Jiang Yuhan laughed through tears, wildly shedding her outer robe.

Heng Xian shook his head: "Since we are both wanderers adrift, why would I want you to have a dead heart?"

"It turns out I'm good for nothing!" Jiang Yuhan suddenly flung herself onto the table and wailed loudly.

Heng Xian sighed: "Join the Bandit Alliance; from now on we'll seize resources, capture spirit veins, cultivate—people must survive no matter what, and if we reach the Divine Transformation or Unity realms, perhaps we could revive your master."

Jiang Yuhan lifted her head, stunned.

Heng Xian tapped the table: "Third Madame!"

"Here I come!"

A puff of demonic energy swooshed open the door, revealing a grinning Tao San Niangzi, who had clearly been eavesdropping nearby.

Heng Xian waved his hand: "She's yours now!"

"Are you hurt somewhere? Really!" Tao San Niangzi chuckled, helped Jiang Yuhan up, and they vanished into the house.

Heng Xian waved to shut the door, glanced down instinctively, and snarled: "Damn your father's injury, you vile demon—an existence of eighteen p, how could you possibly understand?"

He then sat cross-legged on the bed, circulated a threefold cultivation method, uniting essence, energy, and spirit, and took out a red wooden box from his storage bag.

He opened it and picked up the jade tablet.

Upon contact, it was icy cold—not just a simple chill, but with a strange, yin-like coldness.

Purple Sword Dawn Stone?

Heng Xian held up the jade tablet toward the room's illuminating gem, seeing that the tablet wasn't purely white but had a faint reddish hue, as if... dried blood?

At one end of the tablet, the characters "Purple Sword Dawn" faintly appeared.

All right, that's where the name comes from.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the stone, and sensed that there were more characters on it, but they were obscured by that reddish layer.

After thinking, he opened the "Profound Yellow Heavenly Hexagram": "How do we unseal the surface dust of this Purple Sword Dawn Stone?"

The hexagram revealed: "【The blood‑sharp yang of the true body of the ancient sword sage can shatter most worldly filth!】"

Heng Xian immediately drew his sword, pricked his finger to draw blood, dropped it onto the stone, waited more than ten breaths, then wiped it clean.

Sure enough, the reddish patch faded, revealing a small inscription.

It should be written in tiny fly‑head script: "Purple aura comes east to gather the golden core…… The sword cuts heaven and earth, stabilizing rivers and mountains…… Day and night, awakening to comprehend the great Dao……"

It turned out to be a personal insight on understanding the primordial elixir, the sword way, and so forth.

Though fragmented before and after, with only a few characters on the sword way, it nevertheless summarized the insights on forming the golden core.

In other words, a cultivator's progression is: refine the body to essence, enter the innate, draw qi into the body to open the dantian, transform the dantian into a sea and release spiritual qi, gather the myriad streams of the qi sea to condense the golden core……

Heng Xian is currently at the eighth level of the Qi Sea Realm; to form a golden core he must reach the ninth level, where the qi sea frenziedly gathers heaven and earth's spiritual qi—once the quantity reaches a terrifying degree, a qualitative change occurs, slowly turning the sea into a pill.

But this is merely the usual cultivator's method; this insight proposes a technique: refine the body's qi sea nine times, purging all impurities, then form the golden core—upon success, one's mana becomes several or even dozens of times that of an ordinary Primordial Elixir cultivator.

Heng Xian's heart raced—what does it mean for one's mana to be several or even dozens of times richer than that of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator?

If we say people like Sun Botian and Su Lan reached the Primordial Elixir Realm by taking pills, barely breaking through, they'd struggle to reach the middle stage of that realm in this lifetime.

A single Primordial Elixir disciple of a great sect could abuse a whole group of them—for instance, Jiang Yuhan could take on six at once!

Then, by breaking through to the Primordial Elixir Realm using this method, one could thrash a whole gang of Jiang Yuhans, equivalent to brutally dominating a large crowd of Sun Botian and his ilk.

This is basically the difference between a super‑VIP paying player and a zero‑spend player.

Just thinking about it gets me excited—those five hundred low‑grade spirit crystals were well spent!

…… - no.

The Bandit Alliance absorbed the Fierce Tiger Stronghold and Clear Water Stronghold, instantly boosting its numbers to 3,117 members.

Counting the Primordial Elixir masters—including the Scorpion Spirit Tao San Niangzi and Jiang Yuhan—we now have sixteen or more!

For three days straight, Bao Yu, the Master, and a group of people were organizing and fostering the loyalty of the ordinary alliance members.

The results were decent, since everyone had become like this and had no other choice; after all, their boss had sworn a Dao Heart Oath, pledging loyalty to the Bandit Alliance.

Moreover, Su Lan, Song Yi, and their group constantly monitored movements in all directions.

Until early morning of the fourth day, Su Lan hurriedly knocked on Heng Xian's door and delivered a stack of invitations.

Heng Xian picked up and examined each one, okay, it was an invitation from Green Mountain Stronghold inviting the Tiger Stronghold, Clear Water Stronghold, Heroic Knight Gang, and other forces to congratulate the old stronghold master of Green Mountain Stronghold on his birthday.

"How were they intercepted?" Heng Xian put down the invitation and asked.

Su Lan respectfully replied: "We have people constantly watching the movements in the south and all around; we sent out over three hundred brothers at the Qi Hai Realm."

"Basically all the invitations coming from Qing Shan Zhai to the north have been disguised, tricked, and intercepted by us!"

"Did those who sent the invitations from Qing Shan Zhai have any suspicions?" Heng Xian asked.

Su Lan shook her head: "Those people simply aren't that careful, and moreover the people we sent to intercept them are old-timers from Meng Hu Zhai and San Men Bang, so they're quite familiar with them!"

"Not bad!" Heng Xian then asked: "Have the forces from other places all gone?"

Su Lan nodded: "The forces to the west, Han Chuan Town, and even farther north have all set out!"

Heng Xian glanced at the time of the invitation banquet, stood up, and said: "We can have the brothers gather and prepare to depart!"

"Yes!" Su Lan hurriedly walked out.

Half an hour later, on the open ground of the mountain hollow, three thousand troops were neatly arranged, all wearing spiritual armor and wielding spiritual weapons, looking extremely mighty and imposing!

Bao Yu, the three brothers Sun Botian, Wang Dalin, Su Lan, Song Yi, Feng San Ge, Yue Niang, and so on—fifteen Primordial Dan Realm experts—stood on a raised platform to one side.

When Heng Xian came out with Tao San Niangzi.

"Greetings, Master!"

The shout shook the heavens, piercing the clouds.

"Master!"

Bao Yu and the others likewise clasped their fists in salute.

"No need!"

Heng Xian waved at the three thousand allies, walked up to Bao Yu and the others, glanced at the spirited Jiang Yuhan, and asked: "How is it? Do you have confidence?"

Bao Yu and the group exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing: "Full of confidence!"

"Excellent!" Heng Xian looked at the three thousand allies, his voice loud and solemn: "No need for idle talk; we will go, annihilate the greatest power in the south, seize their spirit veins, resources, women, and houses,"

"This battle is certain to be victorious! The bandit alliance will rise, commanding the five great spirit veins and sixty mountains, dominating the region! Are you ready?"

"Fight to the death!"

The shout shook the heavens.

This damn pre-battle rally is actually quite effective.

Heng Xian gave a light cough: "Depart!"

(End of chapter)